1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to trailers and other vehicles equipped with rotatable drums structured to receive separated materials and having mechanics to mix the separated materials into a useful blend such as dry aggregates or wet concrete ready for use. The present invention is particularly directed towards a vehicle equipped with a turnable mixing drum having mechanics for frictionally turning the drum during movement of the vehicle and with the same mechanics useful alternately for turning the drum by manual and auxiliary powered attachments. A hydraulic pump operating a ram is included to reposition the drum for dumping at a job site. The mixer vehicle according the invention is useful as a trailer for hauling dry concrete and aggregate mixes and for transporting ready-mixed concrete. The drum can also be loaded at the job site from a small specialized portable conctrete batch plant and is equipped for using powering providing by the batch plant to keep the mixer drum rotating while the vehicle is stationary. Ready mixed concrete can set up quickly if hauled in a box-type trailer or in a drum trailer which is not turned during even a short haul. Under these conditions, the concrete becomes useless and extremely difficult to remove. Even setting at a job site in a non-turning drum for a short time, concrete can become a major problem to extract from the carrier or to dispose of. The immediate invention has been developed to overcome difficulties imputed to other portable mixers.
2. Desription of the Prior Art
Although small batch concrete hauling and mixing vehicles, trailers and wheelbarrow types, are readily available for rent and for sale in the market place, these small batch concrete hauling vehicles are really not very efficient even equipped with turnable drums. Some trailers types having gasoline moters which turn mixing drums are good enough for limited concrete mixing for the do-yourself home fixer upper provided he has patience and is only doing minor repairs or small area projects. A vehicle for small batch mixing of aggregate or concrete with a good volume capacity drum which will turn during towing or which can be turned by hydrualics or manually while the trailer is parked is not seen in the market place. This is particularly true if the drum is positionable for loading and for discharging the mixture.
From a patent search conducted in classes and subclasses 366/45, 47, 48, and 63 to ascertain state of the art, patented devices considered most pertinent to our invention included the following U.S. Patents:l
U.S. Pat. No. 1,439,178 issued Dec. 19, 1992 to to Levi Lund shows a rather complicated gearing and chain means for turning and tilting a concrete mixing barrel. The devices is mounted on a truck frame for road work.
Another chain and gearing system for turning and tilting a concrete mixer is illustrated in the Howard B. Evans patent issued Apr. 21, 1925, U.S. Pat. No. 1,534,366. The Evans' device is mounted on a two-wheeled trailer and a moter housing is included.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,176,874, issued to Dee St. John on Oct. 24, 1939, illustrates a manually powered wheelbarrow type concrete mixing drum. The device consists of a small drum turnably housed atop a one wheel frame, wherein the frame and unit must be manually pushed to rotate the drum.
E. R. Fesenmaier was issued U.S. Pat. No. 2,299,888, on Oct. 27, 1942 for a concrete mixer utilizing dismantled car parts for the frame and wheel portion of the device. The device consists of a dumping drum which is rotatable by the movement or towing of the unit by a car or other vehicle.
Another towable, rotating concrete mixer was patented by W. Muller on Nov. 9, 1948, U.S. Pat. No. 2,453,583. Improvements were directed towards the mounting and repositioning ability of the drum and the addition of a power unit to provide rotation.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,326,537, was issued to J. S. Wallace on Jun. 20, 1967, for a transit concrete mixer designed primarily to mix the batch of cement en route to the job site by the rotation of the wheels of the trailer. No power supply is provided to rotate or dump the drum.
Andrew B. Clement was issued U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,222, on Aug. 16, 1977, for a small, manually powered rotatable mixer. The rotation or mixing of the contents of the drum is also achieved by towing the device behind a motor vehicle.
On Jun. 14, 1983, Edwin J. Routson was issued U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,995, for another small, manually powered rotatable mixer. The drum of said mixer sits at a right angle to the frame and removal of the contents is accomplished from the side instead of the rear of the unit.
Although several disclosures of rotatable drum cement mixers for transporting small batches of concrete were uncovered in the search, none were seen with a clutching arrangement on a drum turning drive shaft so the drum would turn during towing and the towing attachment could be disengaged so the drum could be turned manually while the trailer was parked or the drum could be turned by mechanical attachments.